 Lots to unlock
 Captures B-movie feel well
 Simple, easy to get into gameplay

The Bad

 Lots of button mashing
 Cheap impaling attacks
 Only two players at any time

Grade

B

War of the Monsters, at its heart, is a full blown
melee fighter where the players take the role of one of many
mutated beasts destroying their way from location to location.
The game begins with a story sequence that explains the reason
behind the game. In true B-movie fashion, players are informed
of an alien invasion of the Earth. To defeat these aliens,
Earth's scientists set up these electric machines, which knock
the UFOs from the skies. Unfortunately, radiation from the
UFOs cause all sorts of mutations.

The single player game is broken up into Adventure, Free-For-All
and Endurance. The Adventure mode gives players one monster
to take through a series of locations, much like a standard
fighter, except that each location tends to have a different
twist to it, like multiple enemies or interference from the
military. While the standard levels require just beating your
enemy to a pulp, the boss fights do require pattern recognition
and some skill with the game's techniques. The Free-for-all
allows you to have up to four monsters in one location, beating
on each other until someone wins, by either surviving or just
getting enough kills. Endurance mode just throws more enemies
at you in the same stage until you drop.

While the player has ten characters to choose from, you'll
find most of them have the same types of abilities and only
vary in speed, ability to fly and a few differences in the
appearance of attack. Everyone has a quick attack, which doubles
as a light distance attack, and a heavy attack. The only real
combos involve tapping the certain attack button multiple
times for a string of attacks. Players can jump and even have
an action button to climb buildings and pick up debris and
cars to beat on enemies with. Pressing two buttons at a time
will execute one of two special energy attacks. Littered all
around the stages are power-ups for health, energy and even
power-ups to turn invisible. You also have the ability to
block attacks and even grapple an enemy to throw them into
buildings. The battle system may not be overly deep in combos
and options, but it is quick and easy to get into without
much practice.

Whenever you finish a stage, you will be rewarded with points,
which can be used to unlock new arenas, costumes, mini-games
and even new combatants. The unlockables go a long way towards
bringing most players back to the single player game.

The character designs, while technically original, are a
great throwback to all of the B-movies that the game shows
strong influence from. You have Togera, the Godzilla-type
monster, Congar, who is obviously King Kong, Preytor, the
immense Preying Mantis and a handful of other beasts and large
robots, including the heavily Japanese Ultra-V. The levels
themselves are the real standout of the game. While not super-detailed,
the real strength of the levels are that they are totally
destructible. You can smash into them, knocking off building
fronts and even knock the buildings themselves down. And,
during the melee, you'll see swarms of fleeing vehicles and
civilians running in terror from the action. In fact, early
on, you may be surprised at how destructible the levels are.
During a full-blown melee, you may knock a good portion of
the levels down to the barren earth, leaving girders and debris
to your disposal as a weapon.

Audio-wise, War of the Monsters captures the concept
exceptionally well. The sweeping and powerful soundtrack feels
like a more modern version of the old B-movie themes and the
sound effects have a great feel to them. Some of the sound
effects even feel like they've pulled straight from the source
material.

While War of the Monsters does a number of things
well, there are a handful of things that just hold the title
back. The in-game camera seems to have a hard time giving
the player the best view of the battle. A lot of times, the
environment will become transparent when the camera gets behind
it, but this is not always the case, which can leave you open
for attack. On top of that, the responsiveness of just about
any action seems to be delayed just enough to make the gameplay
frustrating at times. If you throw a series of attacks and
an enemy moves out of the way, it takes some effort to stop
the attack animation and get turned around. And, blocking
attacks and grappling enemies is never assured unless you
time things just right.

To make things worse, War of the Monsters has probably
some of the cheapest enemy A.I. I've seen in some time. If
you want to see how to beat the game, just watch the computer
as you beat an enemy to a pulp, only to have him manage to
run away, find enough health-ups to bring him back into the
green and then return to beat on you. And if you're facing
more than one enemy... well, good luck. This could be remedied
by playing against other players, but since the game only
supports two players, you're left with adding AI controlled
beasts to make the most of the multiplayer stages.

War of the Monsters tends to be an exercise in serious
button mashing. If you're being grappled or impaled by a piece
of debris, you'll need to mash the buttons way too much just
to get free. In fact, being impaled is just asking for everyone
else in the stage to get a free shot on you. I really wish
that the battle system could have been at least a little deeper
so that players wouldn't have to rely on mashing the buttons
to just get through a fight.

If you're looking for a melee title to play, you should check
this one out. While it could use some depth in the battle
system and some extra polish, this game should be fun for
a good while. With some decent unlockables, the single player
mode should keep you busy for some time. If the game had featured
more than two players at any given time or even system link
or online play, I think War of the Monsters would have
been more of a fun multiplayer title.

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